In an unprecedented move, Nigerian journalists have rejected the country’s new Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili, saying her deployment to the ministry is ”ill-advised and smacks of the usual disdain with which politicians perceive the media”.
The rejection was contained in a statement issued by the umbrella Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the capital city of Abuja Thursday.
Akunyili is one of the 37 ministers whose portfolios were announced by President Umaru Yar’ Adua, who reconstituted his 19-month old cabinet on Wednesday.
Having served successfully as the Director-General of the regulatory National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), many had expected the woman, a Professor of Pharmacy, to be deployed to the Ministry of Health.
The NUJ said in the statement that with Akunyili’s zeal, honesty and commitment to work, she would have been more suitable for the Ministry of Health.
Akunyili apparently disagreed with the NUJ, saying her new assignment was a new beginning in her public service.
“I have enjoyed serving Nigerians through the NAFDAC where I worked with my wonderful and indefatigable team to safeguard the health of the ordinary Nigerian.
“Today is, therefore, a special day for us. It is indeed a new beginning in my public service life. Today, I find myself stirring the ship of this very important ministry as the chief image maker of Nigeria. This ministry represents the image and the soul of the nation,” she said on Thursday.